The 80/10/10 Model

BRICs Practice Management,  ZAP Accounting Software,  the Sole Proprietor Guide and others use a simple system for defining a business. 

1. 80% of business is just business - no matter your trade , craft , product or service

2. 10% of business is your ability  to communicate,  sell,  and sell yourself 

3. 10% is  trade, craft, product , or service specific

The 80% of Business that's just business is what people study when they get an under graduate or graduate degree in business, but the basics can be learned much faster with a simple acronym.   FAMMMSOIT-bELS - and for small business the scope is really quite minimal 

1. Finance - Management of revolving credit , fixed loans, cash flow and investments / assets. For a Journalism business you need a credit card dedicated to your business (in your name or company name)  and minimal assets beyond computer and peripherals. 

2. Accounting - Split Accounting into "Sales Systems" and "Bookkeeping Systems".  These can be manual or automated. 

   1. 1. Sales Systems - Sales systems will vary widely by business and transaction volume. For a journalist simple donation links or a square/stripe/paypal account allowing for payment links may be all that is needed.  Your sales system will generally not be audited as income is aggregated for tax reporting and the auditors know you can cheat and if you cheat high by ghosting income they generally don't care (the bank you fake out mght but that's another story) 

      2. Bookkeeping System - The sole goal of a bookkeeping system is to create an income statement and balance sheet. Thats it.  It can be paper based, spreadsheet based or software based. If you Use one dedicated checking account and one dedicated credit card it will be easy.  They can be in your name or a company name. Just run all transqcations for your business through those and receipts are less relevant as statements work for most justification.   ZAP Accounting sotware is a spreadsheet based system that is free. Highly recommend. Freshbooks or something like that may be fall back. Do NOT engage with Quickbooks unless you already know how to use it and prefer the devil you know. 

3. Management - Management refers to your ability to manage yourself and others. Self discimpline also falls into here.  Journalists must be self motivated and good self managers. 

4. Marketing  - Marketing starts with identifying a NEED in the market place , identifying the Market (the people or business that need it),  identifying revenue streams you can tap to fill the need. it then goes further into defining products and services to fill need. .  Advertising is only a small subset of marketing. For this Journalism oppertunity , SEI 700 Audits are the first need of others, and better local media reporting is the second need that can be filled AND there is reason to believe the current local media providers will be disgraced by this -- forcing people to want new outlets. 

5. Management Science and Operations - This is about list making and setting up efficient systems and processes to do your work, track your work, present your work etc.  Most non engineers in the United States are behind other first world countries in learning about this due to bad grade schooling.  This may include software use. 

6. Information Technology  - More about the hardware ,  networking, account management, and general softwrae setup and configuration as opposed to application and use of software but it could overlap here wit Management Science and Operations.

7. b - silent ; it's just a filler 

8. Ethics/Legal - Think risk managment ,  insurance and legal compliance . Business formation ifnormation, business licenses, etc. 

9. Strategy - How are you goign to combine all information above with your product and service offerring to be successful in a way that is profitable and fullfilling.  How might you set yourself apart (although that may be under marketing and advertising)  . What are your short and long term goals for yourself and your busienss and what do you need to do to get those to align. 

10% >>  Communication and Sales

1. For Audit based Journalism that affects a local community that you can meet at farmers markets and such to introduce yourself (as well as facebook, next door, youtube if you are a digital type) , this should be fairly easy.  

2. You have the ability to generate content they need.  You just need to come up with a mutually beneficial agreement on enegergy exchange for your work or work for tips/donations. 

1. Again, for Audit based Journalism that affects a local communitythis is very striagh forward.  

2. As that work dies down over the next year or few, you may need to be more creative but there is a lot of fraud in a lot of business processes to rectify that will take many years. (see list of fraud in CA as part of SEI "The BREECH")

MARKETING --> OCCUPATIONAL OUTLOOK  (GOOD POTENTIAL FOR MORE THAN GIG WORK FOR FIRST IN...)

1. Short Term -   There will be a window of opportunity here for massive work AND massive attention.   First in to the work are going to get lions share of initial attention until others jump in.  i've only done 5 fairly full audits and I co8uld easily write 20 books on what i've found. (movies, movie scripts etc). Some of theese people were obscene.  Obviously if we all find the obscene --  each story may have less value on a big stage --  but within your county and for your county history 100 years from now, they may be VERY valuable. There needs to be a shift to far more County Governance and less state Governance. More duplication of work at county level that the state is doing 1) boosts work opportunities and 2) forces local decision makes to face constituents. If you are part of the story making that brings that about those stories should have value throughout life. 

2. Long Term  -  After the first audit waves and the first election or two under audit, the Kleptocrats and many others will be chased away. So what then? As mentioned above, 1) there is a good chance your current media outlets will or should fail a as a resuult of this 2) People will be more interested in local events from new writers and reporters that helped them understand the kleptocrats and 3) People should be able to join together to form new, county level media outlets to replace the old guard (that failed). 

LEGAL --> BUSINESS FORMATIONS  (In general)

1. Sole proprietor as self - Just be you.   

2. Sole proprietor Doing Business As - "San Benito County Examiner" for example -- file for a  fictitous name with your county and run the legal ad as required. Good for 5 years. Total Cost under $150. Can setup a bank account the day you file with the County. No need to wait for posting to complete. 

3. Partnerships - two or more people together in theor own names

4. Partnership Doing business As - "San Benito County Examiner" for example - (same as above

5. LLC or S-Corp - Probably not needed nor overly beneficial for individual. While they might provide some legal protection for a collection of people, as a sole owner you would likely be sued personally anyway so skip it unless you know of another reason why they might be good 

   1. 1. Primary difference between the two is equal partnershi9p interests vs that which can be split unequally via stock. 

      2. If you start making a lot of money an S Corp offers the right for self directed 401k.s. the rest is generally irrelevant

6. C Corporation - Not needed unless you know you need it

7. Non Profit - This wording is confusing. "Tax Exempt" is what it should be called and in theory it should only really affect C-Corps who gain the statuts and have no affect or change on S Corp and LLC filing if they can be granted non profit status (in your state) .  

   1. 1. The benefit of a non-profit is tax based. If you generate 100k in profits for the year and pay out 60k in income to yourelf, only the 60k is taxed at a personal level. The other 40k sits in your account as if it has NOT been earned yet.  (with a company tht money would be taxed). That is the MAIN benefit of a non profit.  You can accumlate money tax free year over year. 

      2. There are benefits like the ability to use Library Space at the county and grants designated for non-profits. 

      3. There are drawbacks. You need a Board, taxes are public information AND you must remain non-partisan << check on this last one -- it surprised me and I believe it's true somehow>>

L;EGAL --> BUSINESS FORMATIONS  (Legal Perspective (aka Civil Legal perspective))

Libel and Slander are civil crimes related to saying or writing a falsehood about someone that you KNEW at time of writing or saying it it was false.  Generally speaking if you put something out false , they can not sue immediately. they must ask for redaction or correction and if you do that their claims would be very limited if any -- and with digital publishing (non-pdf) where content can be changed and noted -- and reach is hard if not impossible to assess . Libel/slander may be an nearly impossible claim to win if there is any gray area. Furthermore, nobody will sue you if you have no money as any judgement is/should be dismissible with bankruptcy. Furthermore, in CA there are strong "Anit SLAP" laws -- which allow for counter suits for improperly trying to control the free speech of another.  Thus for most people trying to do generally honest reporting  -- as long as you use "believed" and "alleged" and other suggestive words -- there should be zero reason anyone can pursue you properly.  Some homeowners  policies actually cover litigation for libel and slander -- although probably would not cover  if it was part of paying work.   You could check with insurance carrier to see if any other insurance might be available to journalists if of interest. 

Bottom line, unless you have a lot of money and no way to liquidate it (like a corporation) it's unlikely you will get sued for journalism work. That is not an invitation to openly slander, but in the current system it actually may kind of  work that way. 

1. Incorporating provides Minimal protection for solo-prenuer - Most likely you will gain no protection from incorporating  if you are operating by yourself.  You would be sued individually and via your business entity. 

2. Incorporating provides Minimal protection for small number of people all contributing equally - Most likely you will gain no protection from incorporating  if you are operating with a small number of people all contributing equally.  The will likely just sue the contributor(s) personally. 

3. Incorporating provides protection if you have partners doing different tasks and/or employees - If you have partners or employees employees doing different tasks incorporating could add protection if/when one of your people does something litigation worthy but that likely would NOT protect yhou for thihgs you wrote in your name or those you wrote as "editor".